Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Pokemon: Twist of Fate ❯ A Test of Character ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Note: I don't own pokemon and most of the characters here belong to Nintendo, game freak or one of the other pokemon
companies. The main character, Korijus, Tao and Jason do.

Also: Hang in there to find out the main character's name.. all will be revealed soon.

The edge of his blade rested upon the curve of his enemy's sword, pressing it downwards to submission. Except there was
no blade and no enemy. He clutched the handle of the sword as if his life depended on it. Except it didn't.

His master smiled as if he'd been the meowth that got the cream. This was always the most satisfying part of the job,
seeing all the time he'd invested in a student pay off. And if it didn't? Well at least his students wouldn't
make the same mistake next time after he smacked them about a bit with a wooden sword.

"Enough," he announced with a satisfied tone to the word. The two fighters relaxed a little, but only a little.

He set the metre long shinai on the wooden floor, by his feet in front of him. His student did the same and the two
stood opposite each other and bowed. They were standing in the inner sanctum of Fuschia's gym, a building someone
once described as "looking like a Japanese restaurant". Believing the gym was a restaurant was as dangerous as it was
ignorant. It may have been made out of wood and bamboo but the gym was so full of traps it was almost impossible
to reach the inner sanctum.

"You have done well," his master announced to him with a deep experienced voice. "Who would have thought it, after these
years you've managed to outdo my expectations of you. I remember when you first made it here, you were just a boy. A
small, clumsy boy." He chuckled heartily as he finished the sentence. "I feel you have not the same natural potential
as the others, but you have something much better. Determination."

It was true, he thought. When he first arrived in the gym he hadn't noticed the seemingly endless series of traps to
deal with intruders. He still remembered whenever he fell through the first line of defence, panes of glass so clear
they didn't appear to be there. He still had the scars to prove it.

His student nodded at the comment. He was more determined now than he had ever been, he was on his own in the gym -
the other students never really gave him a chance. They felt he was weak and inferior, regardless if he would prove
himself otherwise. The only human friend he had there was his master, for company he had his pokemon.

"I thank you Master Koga," he said accepting the half-compliment his teacher had given him.

Koga nodded once again and smiled. They were both clad in the traditional ninja attire - well traditional at least for
this gym, tunic, trousers, belt and sandals, all in dark colours of course. Around their necks they also wore scarves
so long that they resembled cloaks.

The room that they stood in was a room that Koga like to use specifically for sparring and often battles too. It was
a large square room, and tall in the middle. The roof was tall in the centre of the room, but it slanted downwards
at each side.

At this point in time, Koga had been testing his student, a completion exam - a coming of age test for the ninja students
only. It was a series of trials, set over three days. On the first day he had faced a intense obstacle course which he had
to face blind folded. It was an almost impossible test of agility, dexterity and concentration, yet it had been surprisingly
easy for the boy who sometimes struggled with tying his shoe laces.

"Tomorrow is the next stage. The final test, I'd like to see how you battle these days eh?" Of course, he was referring
to a pokemon battle. If this was any other day, with any other opponent Koga would probably be trying to psyching out
his adversary. But this was different. Koga may have been a gym leader, but his pupil had always been an
exceptional trainer. From day one, the student had always taught the master to play ball at pokemon.

"It shall be one round, one pokemon each" Koga declared, as he faced his student. He was around the same height as Koga
himself, an inch or two over six foot and with a toned build. His dirty fair hair was puffed out and upwards, in a fashion
similar to the gym leader's but it stood taller and stretched out more. His bluey green eyes showed the coolness
he had about him, but with an unexplainable intensity inside his mind.

"Now go, young one - send the next one in," the master waved his student out.

He bowed before turning towards the door. When he moved, he literally seemed to float, like some kind of Ghost. Each
stride was another glide through space and time. Yet to him it was completely natural, he had no need to put it on.
He left the room, into the less illuminated hall connected to it.

As his master had asked, he nodded to the fellow student standing by the door. It was her. Janine. She Koga's
daughter, an only child. She was beautiful, she was strong, fast, agile. Janine, like him was a teenager and probably
only a month or two younger. He thought about her sometimes, he wasn't in love with her or anything but she did look
very very cute. That and the fact she didn't mock and insult him like the other students. The other two.

There were two others, Tao and Jason. They ostracized him, with them about he felt like an outsider, some kind of freak
doomed to be locked away from any sense of civilization. They didn't just ignore him - they mocked him behind is back,
Tao seemed to make a game of it doing it for fun but not Jason. Whilst Tao said things in a jokey fashion to Jason and
Janine, Jason was much more personal. Occasionally, Jason would say things face to face, but in a group he always said
things loud enough for everyone to hear.

As she went to went to enter the sparring room, he stopped for a moment. He thought about wishing her luck for a moment,
perhaps he could break the silence. Silence, the ninja's greatest weapon. He loved it, he revelled in it but that did not
mean he hated sound or at least human company. Janine, had rarely spoken to him, she fitted in with the other two but
she did not take part in the same fun making the others made.

He decided against speaking to her. It would only make her uncomfortable anyway. His journey continued down the hall until
he reached an exit to the outside. He left the gym, calmly - albeit dodging a few traps on his way out. To anyone else,
this might have appeared quite impressive but to him, it was an everyday occurrence.

The air was fresh and sweet to breath. He loved the outdoors, it was one of the few things that kept him alive each day.
He was allowed to sweat outside and he did so immediately. Koga had taught his students a technique to prevent themselves
from sweating, or at least to control it whenever it could of caused a hindrance - the sound of sweat dripping onto the
floor had been the downfall of more ninjas that one might think.

He scanned the area, outside the gym. Fuschia's gym was in true ninja style, hidden. Located in the depths of forests,
the trees shadowed it and those who managed to find it, often did it by accident. Koga liked trainers who sought to
battle for the badge to work a little harder just to find the place. It was far from the civilized city of Fuschia itself,
Koga occasionally allowed his students to venture out to the city at weekends to get supplies.

Koga's students sometimes made a few friends in the city, but the sensei tended to emphasize that in life, you must only
depend on yourself. The master had taught his students things that didn't conform with the usual ideals that a community
might have. Koga wasn't a community.

The clan was ancient, Koga to lead it and teach the arts on to future generations - he was no maverick teacher. Koga
led the clan with discipline, it was his family - a family that adopted new children, but a family never the less. It
seemed strange then that members of the family were taught to rely on themselves but it was a valuable lesson. The
clan was to lie in the shadows, knowledge of it should not be passed on lightly.

The teenager walked around the house for a little while, just to take in some air, then turned to walk over to a large pond.
He was still sweating, he needed to release it all after that last test. Adrenaline still pumped around his body, he could
almost hear the sound of his pulse pushing blood through his veins. It felt good. It felt very good.

He reached for a few pokeballs on his belt, threw them down and released the occupants of them. There were four in total,
each one held a different pokemon. Charizard, Scyther, Haunter and finally Feraligatr. He had always hoped to evolve
Haunter and Scyther into they're more advanced stages but he was happy with them as they were for now.

His pokemon and he had developed strong bonds over the years. Together they had been through a lot, whilst the teenager
had relied on the help that his pokemon gave him, they needed him too. The four monsters had been trained considerably,
their strength had been trained into them by their master.

Feraligatr began to wade into the pond whilst Haunter decided to lurk around the area a bit. Charizard and scyther remained.
The two had a friendly rivalry between them, it had developed from when they first laid eyes on each other. Their
personalities were the same - both fierce and fiery, living to battle. Charizard was the boy's first pokemon. Well, it
started from a charmander naturally of course. It was given to him by Professor Oak, who believed that the kid was going
to be an excellent trainer.

To an extent, he had become what Oak thought he would be.. but he was more than a trainer now, he was a ninja too.

He looked at Charizard and smiled. Charizard, he had to admit was his favourite. Together, they made a great team and in
the six years they had been paired there had been only one argument. The giant winged lizard blasted a spout of intense
flame into the air to show his appreciation. Scyther too, sharpened his curved blade-like claws against each other,
something he could only do in the freedom of the open air.

The boy panted a little more, his body still needed more oxygen to repay the debt. He was very athletic but this was never
an inbuilt thing. For about five years now had he trained but he had trained much harder than the other pupils. They didn't
seem to need to train hard to be as fit as they were - everything seemed natural about their abilities. There was something
different about him that everyone knew though, what it was they couldn't say but it was there.

He let his pokemon out daily, let them get a little bit of exercise, often he'd have them battle each other or do other tests
but today he only wanted to have their company. Each one of them was trained to a state of almost perfection, every time
they trained they seemed stronger than the day before - yet they had defeated so many of their opponents it was unbelievable.

The test he had just completed was a test of his swordsmanship, after several odd activities involving ropes, ribbons and
targets he was to spar with Koga himself. Koga naturally went a little easy on his students, just a little mind. The wasn't
master prepared to put on a full display of his skill - he didn't want to hospitalize the pupils now. A few hard bruises
would suffice if they were too cocky.

As they stood, joking and laughing dinner was being prepared. The kitchen was very close to the pond, he could easily smell
what was being cooked from where he stood, a kitchen window lay ajar. He loved the dinner he had there. Koga's sister, Iya
prepared the meals each day - sometimes she'd have the students help or Korijus, Koga's second in command would also lend a
hand.

Iya was really nice, she was about the only one he felt easy to talk to. She didn't mind him either, whilst the other
students treated her with respect, he understood her problems and would listen like she would for him. Whilst Koga was
like a father figure, Iya was just a friend but a good one. He guessed it was more than one human friends he had there. It
was two.

After a moment of consideration, the trainer decided he'd see if she needed a hand. He walked a few metres to another
entrance of the house. The door was open, revealing a large pantry with traditional stove and cooking utilities.

"Afternoon Iya," he said smiling by the door.

"Well, how did you do then?" Iya said smiling back. Iya too was beautiful. She was shaped perfectly, the tight fitting
ninja attire suited her curves perfectly emphasizing every incredible contour of her body. Her face shone like a star,
like a light in the shadows the clan was to hide itself in, her beautiful green hair and blue eyes complimented it perfectly.

Although she was young, she was the closest thing to a mother figure the teenagers had. Iya was only a few years older than
the pupils but she was well respected.

He nodded and made an expression that was close enough to a smile. She said he never smiled, but he had a nice smirk.

"Well, I think - I passed any road," the teenager replied.

"Good, now come and help make the tea," Iya said directing him to a set of cups and a kettle boiling on the hot stove. He
washed his hands and got to work, preparing the drinks for the dinner. Iya returned to dealing with the dinner. The pupils
needed a good meal after all those tests.

After a while he kind of looked at Iya as she made the dinner. He found her really attractive and sometimes he couldn't help
checking her out but he didn't mean anything by it. They were friends, good friends after all - he didn't want anything
more but he was still a teenager and she was the only girl he ever spoke to. He continued preparing the tea and washing up
any used plates until the dinner was finally ready.

Korijus, Koga's second in command came in to help carry the meal into the dining area. Korijus was the same age as Koga,
give or take a few years. He was a few inches taller than the sensei but he looked fairly similar to his leader
if not a little darker. He asked the student how he did and nodded at his response, fairly similar to the one he gave Iya.
The three of them carried dinner into a dining area and set it out on the table.

The dining area was a fairly large room with a low rectangular table over a tatami. A few green plants were kept in pots
around the corners of the room, whilst a round gong was used to announce that dinner was served. Iya and he set out
seven plates around the table. Koga, Iya and Korijus would sit at one side of the table whilst the four students kneeled
by the other side.

Tao was a blonde haired, blue eyed boy who seemed to be the least serious of all four of the students. He smiled a lot,
whilst Jason seemed to wear a face more of smug self-satisfaction than actual happiness. Jason was dark haired, his green
eyes shone coldly, as if he was always thinking to himself. Tao was of a medium height, whilst Jason was taller - probably
the tallest of all. Jason seemed to take a lot of instruction from Korijus.

Iya sounded the gong and waited for everyone to enter. Koga was followed by Tao, then Jason and Janine entered.
They sat down ready for the meal to be served.

"Smells wonderful as always, Iya" Koga said in his deep sounding voice to his sister.

"Thank you Brother," Iya replied.

Iya poured tea into each cup, then revealed what was to be eaten - a delicious steaming stir fry to be eaten with rice.

The students smiled, kneeling at the table as Iya served the dinner onto their plates with a large wooden spoon. She sat
down and allowed her older brother to stand and make his pre-dinner speech

"Well students, tomorrow you will take the final test. If you succeed, you will no longer be my students but my equals,"
he said smiling. "I won't hold back on any of you this time, so enjoy this meal. Hyzumi," he said before lifting the cup
of tea to his mouth.

He coughed, spluttered then uttered a weak scream of pain.

He lay on the ground, by the table. Dead.